The state can follow the example of Abraham Lincoln and finally establish a progressive state income tax.
The Lightfoot administration intercepted at least $27 million in 2020 from residents’ state tax refunds to collect on debt, disproportionately hitting lower income neighborhoods and communities of color.
While rural hospitals have been closing at a quickening pace over the past two decades, a number of inner-city hospitals now face a similar fate.
Two articles: The Fair Tax Amendment: Why the ‘Illinois Exodus’ Could Be a Red Herring (The Chicago Reporter), Flat tax: 'Subsidy for Wealthiest Illinoisans' (One Illinois)
The upward redistribution of income has cost Americans workers $50 trillion over the past several decades. On average, extreme inequality is costing the median income full-time worker about $42,000 a year.
US billionaires’ wealth is soaring while millions remain unemployed, creating a country with two economies and increased inequality
Policing is not the only kind of state violence. In the mid-twentieth century, city governments, backed by federal money, demolished hundreds of Black neighborhoods in the name of urban renewal.
The planned closing of Mercy Hospital underscores the dramatic loss of maternity services in Chicago over the past year — reflecting the failure of local government agencies to adequately fund critical services in vulnerable communities.
Despite the outpouring of praise for essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, their own interests continue to come second to the broader public’s need for cheap and reliable labor.
Organized labor must adopt a different framework that starts with the difficult discussion about U.S. history . . . to lay the foundation for a different domestic and international strategy for workers’ rights and justice.
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